The gradual erosion of pop music continues with The Dillinger Escape Plan's glorious third full-length album. Entitled Ire Works, the blitzkrieg 38 minutes on offer here blazes past with all the subtlety of an exploding gasoline pipe.
This shouldn't come as a surprise to older fans, the likes of whom are likely already well-versed in Dillinger's incinerating pyrotechnics. For everyone else, here's the general equation---take two parts violent hardcore played at levels of algebraic precision, add in liberal amounts of chilly electronica, and then complete the formula with angular, post-modern lyricism and confrontational, full-blown catharsis. Though always a gripping, blood-boiling listen, Ire Works is also a fantastic starting point for listeners unfamiliar with the band---this is undoubtedly the catchiest, most accessible record The Dillinger Escape Plan has crafted to date.
One would be hard pressed to think this after hearing album opener "Fix Your Face." In truly vintage fashion, Dillinger careens through passages of manic blastbeats, stabbing jazz patterns, and pit fight violence. "Lurch," meanwhile, is an even meaner affair. It is a hailstorm of odd time signatures, ferocious beatdowns, and blatant aural trauma from a black cloud of good-old-fashioned hardcore chock full of aggression.
As brutal as these two introductory pieces are, it is "Black Bubblegum" which will draw in more casual music fans while offering newer surprises for older fans. "Bubblegum" boils at a searing simmer, weaving its way through hiccups of grim industrial and a tense undercurrent of metallic heaviness. The whole thing is like Nine Inch Nails getting assaulted by a Mike Patton side-project in a back alley. Heck, I'll be blunt and just call this the second coming of Faith No More's breakthrough single "Epic."
From there on out, the CD is a verified rave-up through aggressive yet atmospheric electronics and blood-soaked mathcore. "Sick on Sunday" is a hypnotically-creepy festival of lights reminiscent of a heavy metal Aphex Twin. Out of its dying ashes emerges the tantric skitter of "When Acting as a Particle," which grows from jagged strings into the pummeling "Nong Eye Gong." "Nong" packs more progression and dynamic complexity into its one minute length than most bands can do in an entire decade of singles. Next is the slamming electronica of "When Acting as a Wave." After this, "82588" throws a furry of sonic punches at listeners only to cool down in an eerie lounge section. The boozy "Milk Lizard," meanwhile, is a barnstorming riot of jazz-inflected anarchy and soaring choruses, and arguably the album's best song. "Party Smasher" is just that, a wild orgy of stomping technicality. "Dead as History" is a masterpiece of sound. Be it the cinematic scores, the moody Latin rhythms, the steamrolling chugging, or the epic sing-alongs, this one has it all. "Horse Hunter" is a stampede of rhythms and cutting guitars, and album closer "Mouth of Ghosts" is a demented piano ballad that gradually grows into a crescendo of shredding groove.
All-in-all, Ire Works is a landmark piece. Its unabashed experimentation pushes the envelope of what music can be well into the future. At times catchy, at others obtuse, the whole album is always memorable and confrontational too. This is the sound of the I-Pod generation meeting its own impending doom. I can recommend few albums from 2007 much higher than this.
The Dillinger Escape Plan's Ire Works
1. Fix Your Face
2. Lurch
3. Black Bubblegum
4. Sick on Sunday
5. When Acting as a Particle
6. Nong Eye Gong
7. When Acting as a Wave
8. 82588
9. Milk Lizard
10. Party Smasher
11. Dead as History
12. Horse Hunter
13. Mouth of Ghosts